Hong Kong teens held over swindling elderly woman out of HK$50,000 in phone scam
Hong Kong police have arrested a 16-year-old girl and an 18-year-old man in connection with a phone scam that swindled an 85-year-old woman out of HK$50,000 (US$6,369) by pretending to be her daughter and falsely claiming to require bail money.
Advertisement
The force said on Sunday that the victim reported the incident on Friday. After receiving a call from someone posing as her daughter in police custody, the elderly woman followed instructions and handed over HK$50,000 in cash to a man at a pre-arranged location.
She only realised she had been scammed after contacting her real daughter and subsequently reported the incident to the police.
Later the same day, the fraudsters contacted the victim again, demanding more 'bail money'. The duo were arrested on Chai Wan Road at around 5.30pm. The case has been taken over by the Eastern District Police District Crime Investigation Team.
Both individuals were provisionally charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud and are scheduled to appear in Eastern Court on Monday morning, the force said.
Advertisement
In Hong Kong, conspiracy to defraud carries a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Hong Kong man scammed out of HK$4,900 trying to buy Blackpink tickets
A 25-year-old Hong Kong man was scammed out of HK$4,900 (US$624) when trying to buy two tickets for Blackpink's pair of concerts in the city next year, as police received 200 reports related to online shopping scams in the past week. Advertisement The victims in those cases were cheated out of HK$5.5 million in total, according to the force's CyberDefender anti-scam Facebook page that posted an advisory on Saturday warning residents to be vigilant when making purchases online. Of the recent reports, 14 were linked to Threads, with 10 cases related to concert tickets, the force said. It cited one case in which a 25-year-old man fell victim to a scam while trying to buy tickets for Blackpink's concerts at Kai Tak Stadium next year. '[He] saw someone selling two Blackpink concert tickets on Threads and contacted the person through an associated Instagram account. The victim did not hesitate to transfer HK$4,900 to the other party's account via FPS in exchange for a dynamic QR code for the concert's e-tickets,' police said. Advertisement The force asked online shoppers to check the seller's account information including the date the account was created and comments posted by users, meeting in person to carry out the transaction when possible and calling off the deal if any doubts arise.
South China Morning Post
5 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
9 arrested over fatal triad gang brawl in Hong Kong
Nine individuals with suspected triad backgrounds have been arrested by Hong Kong police following a violent brawl over a debt that left a 68-year-old participant dead. The group comprising five men and four women aged between 27 and 44 were arrested on suspicion of manslaughter and affray. They were still being detained for questioning on Sunday afternoon. The incident took place at around 3am on Saturday near the junction of Hing Wah Street and Shun Ning Road in Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon. Acting Senior Superintendent Chen Chi-cheong, deputy commander of the Sham Shui Po police district, said on Sunday that two gangs, some armed with metal rods, confronted each other at the scene, resulting in a fight. The gangs had dispersed by the time officers arrived. But a 68-year-old man was later discovered collapsed on Hing Wah Street. He was taken to Caritas Medical Centre in Sham Shui Po, where he was pronounced dead despite receiving emergency treatment. Police believe he also had a triad background.
South China Morning Post
6 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
How hapless Chinese scientists became ‘agroterrorists' in the US
Its name sounds forbidding – Fusarium graminearum – though most of us would have no idea what it is. But if the bosses at the FBI and the US Department of Justice made a big show of announcing the arrests of Chinese nationals charged with trying to smuggle samples into the United States in a suspected act of agroterrorism, you would be scared too. One of the three suspects is even a card-carrying Chinese communist. Case closed. Here's what Kash Patel, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, wrote in a long post on social media. 'The FBI arrested a Chinese national within the United States who allegedly smuggled a dangerous biological pathogen into the country,' he wrote. 'The individual, Yunqing Jian, is alleged to have smuggled a dangerous fungus called Fusarium graminearum, which is an agroterrorism agent, into the US to research at the University of Michigan, where she works.' It gets worse: the woman is a communist! 'Evidence also indicates Jian had expressed loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party and had received funding from the Chinese government for similar work on this pathogen in China,' Patel continued. 'Jian's boyfriend, Zunyong Liu – also charged in the complaint – works at a Chinese university where he conducts research on the same pathogen. 'This case is a sobering reminder that the CCP is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences ... putting American lives and our economy at serious risk.' Doesn't that sound scary? But wait, there are almost 100 million citizens who are party members in China. It's a bit like saying an American suspect is a Democratic or a Republican Party member.
